Physician compensation remains a critical lever for recruitment, retention, and sustainability…
…especially as organizations navigate urgent workforce challenges.
Our 2025 Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey reveals the most significant shifts in total cash compensation (TCC) this decade, highlighting specialty-specific market pressures, evolving workload expectations, and increasing utilization of recruitment incentives. These key insights can inform competitive strategies in today’s dynamic marketplace.
Get started with the latest benchmarks from our Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey – which features data from 500 organizations on nearly 231,300 physicians and 232 specialties.
Need a quick summary?
COMPENSATION INCREASES
- The 2025 survey reflects the largest average increase in median total cash compensation (TCC) seen this decade.
- These are primarily the result of supply and demand dynamics rather than increases in productivity.
- Adult medical specialties saw the greatest year-over-year increase at 7.5%.
- Over the past five years, however, primary care specialties have grown the most at 21.8%.
HOSPITAL-BASED MARKET PRESSURES
- Employers in anesthesiology, critical care and hospital medicine have reduced required annual work hours year-over-year.
- This has effectively resulted in an increase in compensation, s physicians may earn the same TCC while being required to work fewer hours or shifts.
RECRUITMENT INCENTIVE TRENDS
- As physician supply continues to be challenged across most specialty areas, organizations are utilizing a wide range of recruitment incentives for new recruits.
- 90% of organizations now receive sign-on bonuses, up 2.5% from 2024.
- 52% of organizations offer student loan repayment.
- Some additional practices include malpractice tail coverage (38%), resident recruitment stipends (27%), dependent tuition assistance (7%) and low-interest student loan refinancing (2%).
Learn more about our Physician Compensation and Productivity Survey!
This survey represents the largest and most comprehensive physician compensation benchmarking resource for health systems and hospitals nationwide. This year’s report includes data from more than 500 health care organizations representing approximately 231,300 physicians across 232 specialties.
- Base salary and total cash compensation data as well as cost of benefits
- Productivity data and ratios, including work RVUs, collections, patient visits and panel sizes
- Value-based compensation approaches and amounts paid
- Data for multiple position levels from staff physicians to chairs
- National data reported by region, organization type, position level and specialty group
- Other data, including sign-on bonuses, retention bonuses, relocation assistance and other perquisites
